Karda Estra - A Winter In Summertime


Year of Release: 1998
Label: No Image
Catalog Number: NICD012
Format: CD
Total Time: 27:26:00

The name of multi-instrumentalist Richard Wileman hasn't escaped our attention because in a previous life this talented guy formed the most important part of the band Lives & Times. This band released a multitude of albums such as Waiting For The Parade and The Great Sad Happy Ending on the now defunct SI label. Some five years ago the album There And Back Again Lane was released through Cyclops. The band's final album got released under the title of Hoarse, an album on which singer Ileesha Bailey takes over the microphone from Richard's trusted representative Lorna Cumberland.

Wileman is now retired into his intimate cocoon, delivering new material by means of his new ego Karda Estra, a band which could easily fit on the 4AD label. This mini album contains minimalistic, ambient-like excesses, very classically arranged, resulting in the ideal unpublished soundtrack. When Wileman integrates the acoustic guitar within sultry strings and etheric vocals as in "Second Sight," you find yourself with both feet in the dark world of gothic music, whilst the rhythmic contents refer to the original dreamworld of Portishead. The "lyric-less" singing in "Transference" even has me think of themes out of the Moodies' Days Of Future Passed mixed with a dash of Iona and Clannad. Those of you who had the pleasure exploring the original music of Lives & Times: this is at least ten times better!


Tracklisting:
? From A Deep Sleep (4:05) / Covert (4:06) / Second Sight (3:25) / The Excavation Site (3:05) / Transference (6:08) / Nightfall (3:41) / Fatal Flaw (2:50)

Musicians:
Richard Wileman - guitars, bass, keyboards, samples, drums, percussion, effects
Illesha Bailey - vocals, recorder
Zo? King - flute, clarinet
Rachel Larkins - viola

Discography:
A Winter In Summertime (1998)
Thirteen From The Twenty First (2000)
The Land Of Ghosts (2000)
Eve (2001)
Equilibrium (2002)
The Land Of Ghosts Vol. 2 (2002) (oop)
Constellations (2003)
Voivode Dracula (2004)
Alternate History (2004)
The Age Of Science And Enlightenment (2006)
The Last Of The Libertine (2007)
Weird Tales (2009)
New Worlds (2011) (free album download)

Genre: Symphonic Prog

Origin UK

Added: December 1st 2000
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: www.kardaestra.co.uk
Hits: 2326
Language: english

  

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